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Climate change the hidden driver of the migrant caravan

Signal of change / Climate change the hidden driver of the migrant caravan

Violence and poverty have been cited as the major causes of farmers being forced off their land in Central America, subsequently creating the migrant caravan appraoching the US border. However, experts have identified climate change as a prominent factor, acting as a multiplier for systemic violence and poverty. “The main reason people are moving is because they don’t have anything to eat. This has a strong link to climate change,” Robert Albro, a researcher at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, told the Guardian.

So what?

Climate instability is rapidly undermining food security in the region. This is a problem that is likely to get worse in the future, as we deal with increasingly severe weather and decimation of agricultural lands. What is more, the protectionist response from the Trump administration could be a sample of a reaction we'll see more frequently from governments faced with climate migration, particularly given the growing number of nationalist governments across the world.